Engrafted VHL peptide-delivered bone marrow stromal cells promote spinal cord repair in rats

Stem cell-based therapy using bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) has been expected to be a promising therapy for neuronal regeneration. To repair the injured spinal cord, neuronal differentiation of MSCs before transplantation has a more satisfactory effect. Recently, neuronal differentiation of neural progenitor/stem cells by an intracellular delivery of a pVHL-derived synthetic peptide (VHL peptide) has been shown. Here, we show that VHL peptide-delivered MSCs differentiated into neuron-like cells, and that engrafted VHL peptide-delivered MSCs more recovered the behaviors of the rats than that of nondelivered MSCs. Our result suggests that the use of VHL peptide-delivered MSCs would be a promising therapeutic strategy for repairing the injured spinal cord.